I've always had a question about this as well; specifically, what is really
meant by "adding security to a CMM"?
I've always felt that the level at which the software (or system) process is
defined by a CMM is too high and too abstract for the addition of security
activities to be particularly meaningful.
My feeling is that a CMM is best used as a means of ensuring that the more
detailed life cycle process is implemented in a disciplined manner, and that
the amount of benefit, in terms of improvement of whatever property one is
trying to improve - quality, reliability, security, safety - of the
system/software that results from the process can be measured.
Where the actual security activities need to be defined and added are to the
life cycle methodology. At best, adding security to a CMM can provide a very
high level framework for helping someone who is "shopping" for a life cycle
methodology know what to look for in that methodology. Is a CMM necessary for
that purpose? I'm not convinced that it is.
I think what is likely to be more effective is a change in outlook by the
practitioners who will be using the life cycle methodology. Their outlook needs
to change so that a single question is asked before any choice or decision is
made: What are the security implications of the choice/decision?
Of course, there's much more to it than just asking that question. And that's
the reason we need to train developers, testers, etc. to (1) understand what
"security" means, both at the software and system levels; (2) visualise and
recognise the possible impact(s) each of their choices/decisions could have on
the security of the system they are building (before the fact); (3) recognise
the impacts each of their choices/decisions has had on the security of the
system they have built (after the fact). Tools and techniques to help
developers do the second and third of these are proliferating (e.g., threat
modeling, attack trees, etc. for before-the-fact; analysis and testing tools
for after-the-fact). But in the end, I believe the #1 factor that will
contribute to the increased security of software is the developer's mentality.
A security-aware...and more importantly, a security-*concerned&...developer is
more likely to (1) avoid making bad choices and decisions, and (2) to take an
interest in, and pursue becoming, knowledgeable enough to correct bad choices
that he/she did not avoid making earlier.
--
Karen Mercedes Goertzel, CISSP
Booz Allen Hamilton
703.902.6981
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Francisco Nunes
Sent: Tue 07-Aug-07 07:01
To: sc-l@securecoding.org
Subject: [SC-L] Software process improvement produces secure software?
Dear list members.
In june 2007, I had an interesting conversation with
Mr. Will Hayes from SEI during the Brazilian Symposium
on Software Quality. It was a great experience and I
am very grateful for this.
During our conversation, I made a question to Mr.
Hayes similar to this: "Is it possible that only
software development process improvements can produce
secure software?"
The scenario was only based on CMMI without security
interference.
His answer to this question was "YES". My answer was
"I DO NOT THINK SO".
His answer made me confuse and I had no arguments,
mainly, because my professional experience in software
process does not compare to Mr. Haye's experience.
Unfortunately, I also haven't found any statistics
which could answer this question. Please, if there is
one, let me know!
So, how about you, list members? What are your answers
to the question above?
I will try to organize your answers and present the
final result.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Francisco José Barreto Nunes.
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List charter available at - http://www.securecoding.org/list/charter.php
SC-L is hosted and moderated by KRvW Associates, LLC (http://www.KRvW.com)
as a free, non-commercial service to the software security community.
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